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Myth and legend as functional instruments in politics: the establishment of the ʿAlawī Dynasty in Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

B. A. Mojuetan
B. A. Mojuetan
Affiliation:
University of Ibadan
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Extract

The paper examines the ‘Ibn Mashʿal episode’ in Moroccan history and explodes its myth. The episode was a non-event; there was no Jew involved, let alone his assassination. The story was false propaganda by al-Rashīd designed for rallying popular support behind his newly-established power. Its acceptance was assisted by the prevalent world-view. Two anonymous Englishmen visiting Morocco in the seventeenth century were the first to commit to writing the ‘national myth’, thus giving it its first seal of authority, which was later reinforced by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Moroccan chroniclers. The mock commemoration of this non-event, by serving as a regular reminder of the redeeming role of the ‘Alawī dynasty, helped to arouse and promote continuing loyalty to the throne. Various distortions have, however, crept into the basic substratum of al-Rashīd's mythical presentation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 17 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 al-Wufrānī, Muhammad al-Saghīr: Nozhet el-Hadi: Histoire de la Dynastie Saadienne au Maroc 1511–1670 (transl. Houdas, O., Paris, 1889), 301–2 Ar.Google Scholar text; 499 Fr. transl. I have given both the Arabic and French page references throughout even in cases where I have preferred my own translation.

2 al-Ziyānī, Abū' l-Qāsim: Al-Turjumān al-Mu‘arib Duwal al-Mashriq wa’ l-Maghrib, trans Houdas, O. under the title: Le Maroc de 1631 à 1812 (Paris, 1886), 7–8Google Scholar Ar. text; 15 Fr. transl.

3 al-Qādirī, Abū ‘Abadallāh: Nashr al-Mathānī, transl. Michaux-Bellaire, E. in Archives Marocaines, xxxiv (1917), 99 ff.Google Scholar

4 de Cenival, Pierre: ‘La Légende du Juif Ibn Mash‘al et la Fête du Sultan des Tolba à Fes’, in Hespéris, v (1925), 137 ff.Google Scholar

5 A detailed description of the feast is given by de Cenival, ‘La Légende du Juif Ibn Mash'al …’.

6 De Cenival, ibid. De Cenival's conclusion represents the standard interpretation of this episode in textbooks on Moroccan history. See Julien, C. A., Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord, II (Paris, 1966), 225Google Scholar: ‘… he (al-Rashīd) assassinated a rich Jew of the village of Dar ibn Mash'al (in the mountain of the Ban¯u Yaznāsen) …’. Julien's book is now available in English translation: History of North Africa (London, 1970), 224.Google Scholar Cf. Terrasse, HenriHistoire du Maroc, II (Casablanca, 1950), 245.Google Scholar Books written before 1925 have not benefited from de Cenival's study and have therefore relied on al-Qādirī's account (p. 18): Meakin, B., The Moorish Empire (London, 1899), 138Google Scholar; Cour, A., L'Établissement des dynasties des chérifs au Maroc et leur rivalité avec les Turcs du Régence d'Alger 1509–1830 (Paris, 1904), 182.Google Scholar In his treatment of the ‘Alawī dynasty Abun-Nasr does not mention this episode and so does not engage in the controversy: Abun-Nasr, J. M.A History of the Maghrib (Cambridge, 1971).Google Scholar A recent article published in this Journal shows that current thinking on this subject is still pitifully outmoded: Brett, M., ‘Problems of Interpretation of the History of the Maghrib in the light of recent publications’, J. Afr. Hist. XIII, 4 (1972), 500.Google Scholar

7 Two Jewish sources, for example, were not available to de Cenival: ‘Une Chronique juive de Fes; le “Yabas Fes” de Ribi Abner Hassarfaty’, described by Semach, Y. D. in Hespéris, XIX, 79 ff.Google Scholar; ‘Une receuil de textes historique judéo—marocaines’, published by Vajda, G. in Hespéris xxv, 311Google Scholar and xxxvi, 139 ff. In addition to these Jewish sources there is the invaluable article by H. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, , ‘The problem of the Judaized Berbers’, J. Afr. Hist. IV, 2 (1963), 313 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Al-Ziyānī, op. cit., 2 Ar. text, 3 Fr. transl.

9 i.e. Qādirī, Al-Wufrānī al, al-Ziyānī, and al-Nāsirī, (Kitāb al-Istiqsā' li-Akhbār Duwal al-Maghrib al-Aqsā, Casablanca, 1956).Google Scholar Cf. also Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Katānī: Salwat al-Anfās, VIII (Bibl. Nat., Rabat, no. A 2817 bis), 79–80.

10 Note the distinction, Mahammad rather than Muhammad with fatha rather than a damma on the mīm.

11 A Short and Strange Relation of some of the Life of the Tafiletta, the great Conqueror and Emperor of Barbary, by one that hath lately been in his Majesty's Service in that Country. (London, 1669), 16.Google Scholar

12 Al-Wufrānī op. cit. 301Google Scholar Ar. text; 499 Fr. transl.

13 A letter from a Gentleman of the Lord Ambassador Howard's Retinue to his friend in London, dated at Fes Nov. 1, 1669.Google ScholarWherein he gives a full Relation of the most remarkable passages in their voyage thither and of the present state of the Countries under the Power of the Taffaletta Emperor of Morocco; with a brief account of the merchandizing Commodities of Africa, as also the manners and customs of the people there (London, 1670), 2.

14 Ibid. 2–3.

15 A Short and Strange Relation, 7 ff.Google Scholar The informants of these two anonymous Englishmen were almost certainly Jews. Their sympathetic treatment of the Jewish ‘Prince’ is a far cry from the monster of cruelty depicted by the Moroccan chronicles.

16 Histoire des Conquests de Mouley Archy, connue sous le nom de roy de Tafilet et Mauley Ismael son frère et son successeur à présent regnant, tous deux rois de Fes, de Maroc de Tafilet de Sus etc., in Sources Inédites de l'histoire du Maroc 2e` Série, France 11, 17–18.Google Scholar Germain Mouette was captured on 16 October 1670; after eleven years of captivity his freedom was bought and he arrived in Marseilles on 26 May 1681. His Histoire des Conquests was written from material collected during the period of his captivity. His work, therefore, is a contemporary history of the reign of al-Rashīd and the first ten years of the reign of his brother Ismā'īl. Ibid. Preface, 4 n. 1.

17 A Letter from a Gentleman …, 3 (my emphasis).

18 Vajda, G., Hespéris xxv, 312.Google Scholar

19 Semach, Y. D., Hespéris, xix, 79 ff.Google Scholar

20 Ibid. 81.

21 The discussion that follows has drawn heavily on the informative article of J. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, , J. Afr. Hist. iv (1963), 313 ff.Google Scholar

22 See, for instance, Eldad ha Danī's story in Mauny, R., ‘Le Judaism, les Juifs et l'Afrique Occidental’, Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire XI, 361 ff.Google Scholar; Chouraqui, A., Les Juifs d'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1952), 71Google Scholar; Jewish Encyclopedia, IX, 59.Google Scholar

23 Ka‘ti, Mahmūd, Ta'rīkh al-Fattāsh fī Akhbār al-Buldān wa’l-Juyūsh wa Akabir al-Nās (transl. Houdas, O. and Delafosse, M., Paris, 1913), 62–3 Ar.Google Scholar text; 119–120 Fr. transl.

24 See R. Mauny's discussion of the Jewish phenomenon in W. Africa, op. cit. 354 ff.

25 Al-Bakrī, Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik, transl. de Slane, M. C. as Description de l'Afrique Septentrionale (Paris, 1859)Google Scholar, 175 Ar. text; 382 Fr. transl.

26 Cited in H. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, , op. cit. 331.Google Scholar

27 Al-Wufrānī, op. cit. pp. 299 ff. passim Ar. text; 497 Fr. transl. Cf. the following articles by de Castries: ‘La zaouia de Dila et la chute de la Dynastie Saadienne’ in Sources Inédites, I16 Série, France, III, 572 ff; ‘Les Moriscos à Sale et Sidi el-Ayachi’, ibid. 187 ff.; ‘Les Trois Républiques de Bou Regreg Sale-La Kasba-Rbat’, in Sources Inédites, I16 Série, Pays Bas, v, Introduction.

28 Cited in H. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, , op. cit. 330.Google Scholar

29 Al-Wufrānī, , op. cit. 301Google Scholar Ar. text; 499 Fr. transl.

30 Firth, Raymond (ed), Man and Culture: An Evaluation of the work of Bronislav Malinowski (London, 1960).Google Scholar See especially contributions by A. Richards (Concept of Culture), R. Paddington (Theory of Needs), T. Parsons (Theory of Social System), E. R. Leach (Epistemological Background), Lucy Mair (Study of Social Change). See also Vansina's, J.Oral Tradition (London, 1965), 78Google Scholar: ‘It cannot be sufficiently stressed that in the last analysis, every tradition exists as such in virtue of the fact that it serves the interests of the society in which it is preserved.… Its significance in relation to society is what I call its function’. Cf. also Robin Horton's perceptive discussion of ‘The Kalabari World-View …’, in Africa, XXXII, 196 ff.

31 ‘Myth in Primitive Psychology’, in Magic, Science and Religion (Glencoe, , 1948), 102Google Scholar (my emphasis).

32 Op. cit. 329.Google Scholar

33 This element of ‘glorification’ is evident in the accounts on p. 21, based, as already pointed out, on information most probably supplied by Jews.

34 H. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, , op. cit. 335Google Scholar, ‘They [the legendary stories] originated from Jews, who strove thereby to enhance their prestige among their neighbours, but they might assume an independent existence and might serve as weapons against the Jews, like the story of “Ibn Mash'al”’(my emphasis). Indeed ‘Ibn Mash‘al’s’ assassination by al-Rashīd was ‘justified’ on the grounds of his tyrannical rule over Muslims. See al-Qādiri's account (above, p. 18) and the folklore account pp. 18–19. According to al-Wufrānī, ‘Ibn Mash'al’s ‘oppressed Muslims and made a laughing stock of their religion’ (above, p. 25).

35 ‘A Genealogical Charter’, Africa, XXII (1952), 312.Google Scholar

36 Op. cit. 86.Google Scholar

37 Bohannan, , op. cit. 314.Google Scholar

38 Malinowski, , op. cit. 120.Google Scholar

39 Cf. al-Qādirī's account on p. 18 and the folklore version on pp. 18–19. It is also worthy of note that al-Qādirī's account, a later eighteenth-century source (written after 1756/7— Lévi Provencal, Les Historiens des Chorfa, Paris, 1929, 323)Google Scholar, is a greater elaboration than al-Wufrānī's account, an earlier eighteenth-century source (written before 1724/5—L. Provencal, op. cit. 121).

40 This paper has benefited from discussion with Dr J. Wansbrough and some useful suggestions from the editors. None of them, however, is responsible for the ideas presented here, nor for any imperfections that the paper may contain. I am grateful to the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Central Research Fund, University of London, for making possible the research on which this paper is based.